Apple Authorized Resellers Now Ship iPad Mini

Buyers still in the lookout for an iPad Mini with Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi + Cellular connectivity no longer need to wait for two weeks to have their 7-inch tablet. It was reported that some authorized Apple resellers are now ready to ship all iPad Mini configurations to shoppers within the week.

Available iPad Mini from Apple Resellers

As posted on AppleInsider’s iPad Price Guide, three authorized Apple resellers now have stocks of various iPad Mini models. Target and Wal-Mart have a select few, while MacMall says that they have almost every model, except the 16 GB Wi-Fi model.

MacMall’s on-stock 7-inch tablets are now ready to ship, while the 16 GB Wi-Fi models will start coming to customers within the week. However, the reseller doesn’t carry any Sprint version of the device.

For those who are looking for immediate shipments of iPad Mini from Sprint, Target has every model in stock; with the exception of the White 16 GB model.

Retina Display on iPad Mini

Aside from iPad Mini’s shipping schedule, many are now speculating whether the 7-inch tablet will receive an upgrade soon to feature the Retina Display. However, Anand Lal Shimpi and Vivek Gowri of AnandTech posted an analysis that could dampen people’s hope.

Based on their analysis, Apple has to make any of the three fundamental changes to the iPad Mini before giving it a Retina Display:

Double the current horizontal and vertical resolution of the iPad Mini.

Choose a new resolution that allows the company to achieve the Retina Display while maintaining the tablet’s 4:3 aspect ratio.

Or pick a new screen resolution and aspect ratio.

Although the first option is more likely to happen, Apple’s tendency to quadruple the pixel count of its tablet to achieve Retina Display would require a beefed up battery and processor. As a result, it would make the iPad Mini heavier and more expensive, factors that would make the device “un-Mini.”

The second option would also prompt the company to do a bit of scaling or filtering. That’s because they need to match up the next-generation iPad Mini with the standard 1024 x 768 or 2048 x 1536 pixel resolutions employed in the regular iPad. Meanwhile, the last one would only frustrate developers, as it would require them to recode their apps to support the additional resolution. As what Daring Fireball’s John Gruber wrote:

I feel certain the Mini will go retina, and that when it does, it will do so exactly like all previous iOS devices: same physical size, double the pixel resolution,” wrote Daring Fireball’s John Gruber in response. “The only question is when. The iPhone went retina in the fourth generation; the full-size iPad in the third. Seems like too much to ask for the Mini to do so in its second.